“How I fixed my body”
In January 2009 I injured my shoulder and suddenly my life became all about dealing with pain, loss of function and starting over. I went from being extremely fit and active, doing over 200 pushups per workout, to not being able to do a single pushup. I could barely put on a shirt.
In March I finally started to feel a bit better and wanted to be buff for a show I was doing, so I started to lift weights again. I was pushing them around as best I could do. I started light and built incrementally and slowly. I warmed up well and stretched afterwards. But the pain came back. And more importantly, I also noticed I was building my body incorrectly. I was building asymmetry and imbalance by using compensatory movements to mask my weakness. I noticed my right deltoid getting huge and my right chest shrinking smaller and smaller.
After the show ended, I went off the weights again and went “back to the drawing board.” I knew I didn’t want to do weights anymore, but I wanted to get strong and get my muscles back. I had some yoga photos taken on my birthday, June 15. And when I saw those photos I was absolutely shocked at what I saw. I was so crooked and atrophied; whereas I typically always had a very symmetrical and proportionate build. But the atrophy from the injury combined with my deranged workout supported by compensation patterns had created a monster.
I knew I had to come up with a different plan.
I wriggled on the floor to heal my body, because it was the only comfortable way to move and relieve the pain. My body was begging for it. I knew from being a personal trainer for 15 years, what the best ways were to get muscles and to get lean and to exercise the heart and lungs, and with what I knew from teaching Nia and I mixed it all together and started integrating it all. I was doing yoga movements but thinking cardio intervals. I was stretching by relaxing. I was holding stillness. And I was flowing. I wanted it all to flow together like it used to.
So I created Energy Flow. Or I should say Energy Flow emerged. I discovered it. It put my body back together in such a cool way. I walk around now and I literally feel like a gymnast. I wanted to take my discovery into a class and see if I could share this with the world. And, students are remarking now at how surprised they are that they feel so strong afterwards or that they’d never been able to do a tree before. I’m delighted to find out that the one student who has been to all six Energy Flow classes, is telling me now that her Pilates teacher who has never singled her out in class, in the last class complimented her form three times. Every week she tells me she’s so amazed at herself for being able to do these movements.
But it all started from me not being able to lift my arm. I actually didn’t start my own, personal Energy Flow program until October. I took all of September and ate a strong emphasis on raw, green vegetables and no gluten, dairy or wheat. And I stretched all the time. (That’s how I developed Deep Yoga, but that’s another story) I got all skinny and bendy. It was all part of my healing process.
Then, starting in October I began my Energy Flow program at home. I was amazed at the intensity I could generate just moving while knowing my anatomy and knowing yoga movements and following my instinct to balance and heal myself. And of course I had all of my previous knowledge and training so I was in familiar territory. And it worked. I leaned up really fast because I was doing High Intensity Interval Training. I was doing them on a yoga mat in my living room. And, at the same time, I was stretching and strengthening my body in functional movements. I was practicing a little bit of my Yoga Tune Up every day after each workout, and at the same time I had a little yoga practice of my own.
So I drew up a plan that was all incremental and periodized to create the Energy Flow class format. I used all the elements of what I had used at home and put them into an hour format. I created a cycle of twelve classes and different phases the program progresses through. My plan was to take other people who couldn’t do a pushup and turn them into walking gymnasts as well.
HOW ENERGY FLOW WORKS:
The class begins with a practice called Nia Five Stages, which takes the body through the process of human development: Embryonic, Creeping, Crawling, Standing and finally Walking. This simple but profound technique warms up the body, realigns and integrates the body and triggers the bodies ability to self heal. The practice of these five stages alone is one of the best things you could do to care for your body and create ease and alignment in your structure. If you did only one form of daily exercise it should be Nia Five Stages. Click in this link to read a more in depth description of the Five Stages.
Energy Flow uses Nia Five Stages to warm up and then moves into High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) using timed periods of a callisthenic type of flowing movements and rest periods. Research has shown that doing 20 minutes of HIIT gives better results than long-term cardio sessions for fat loss without losing muscle tissue or wasting energy. As the class progresses week by week the intervals will change in intensity and the movements will grow in complexity and sophistication. Don't worry, your body will adapt right along with the Energy Flow.
And finally, each Energy Flow class will conclude with some sort of relaxation in the form of pranayama breath work, meditation or self-massage techniques.
Taking a cue from the way our bodies best adapt to physical changes, Energy Flow classes work on a cycle of three months. At the beginning of the cycle, the movements are simpler and the rest periods are longer in between them. As the class progresses through the cycle, the intensity is gradually increased by complicating the movements and/or shortening the rest periods. At the conclusion of each cycle, Energy Flow brings it way down with two weeks of restorative recovery. This may include gentle yoga or stretching classes or a full self-massage class called Bliss Out. Then the Energy Flow cycle will begin again.
Variations of all of the movements are shown throughout the series so that each student is working at his/her proper intensity. But a student going through the cycle for a subsequent time will have the opportunity to begin at a more advanced stage then beginning the previous time around and enjoy improvements time and time again.
My intention when creating JAG Energy Flow was to give our bodies everything it needs for peak performance. I wanted to maximize the efficiency of the time and energy spent on acquiring these benefits while minimizing the reliance on a lot of equipment.
JAG Energy Flow delivers a self-healing, body integrated, metabolism boosting, toning, conditioning, centering, relaxing body-, mind- and spirit-blowing experience.
Come in and feel the Energy Flow. We are scheduled to start another new cycle on March 1 meeting Mondays at 6pm. Let me know if you're interested in joining us. I'd love to hear from you.
CLICK HERE FOR SCHEDULE OF CLASSEs